尚方劍

简 尚方剑 · 繁 尚方劍
Mandarin · pinyin shàng fāng jiàn

Meanings

  1. imperial sword (giving bearer arbitrary powers)
  2. in fiction, Chinese version of 007's license to kill
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Characters in this entry

尚
shàng · still, yet; even; fairly, rather
方
fāng · a square, rectangle; a region; local
劍
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剑
jiàn · sword, dagger, saber
Written characters and their own readings; the entry’s pronunciation is shown above.

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Mandarin tones

4–1–4 · shang4 fang1 jian4

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Read this spelling in Classical texts

Follow a written form into the eight pinned witnesses: Analects, Mencius, Laozi, Zhuangzi, Xunzi, Han Feizi, Sunzi and the Mao Shijing. A match is a place to investigate; it does not prove that a modern dictionary sense fits the passage.

尚方劍 · find source passages ↗ · 尚方剑 · find source passages ↗

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Rime Cantonese 粵拼

soeng6 fong1 gim3

Cantonese word readings for 尚方劍. This lexicon supplies readings, not definitions.

CanCLID contributors · CC BY 4.0 · source & license · Data pack

尚方劍 · shang4 fang1 jian4
CC-CEDICT contributors and MDBG · edition 2026-10-13 · source line 35,009
Original dictionary · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Source & transformation details
Exact source record尚方劍 尚方剑 [shang4 fang1 jian4] /imperial sword (giving bearer arbitrary powers)/in fiction, Chinese version of 007's license to kill/